What do I need to do on my Auto Ordnance 1927A1?

[Baltimore Ed]

Zooters, I broke down and bought a 1991 vintage Auto Ordnance West Hurley 1927A1. I?m waiting for it to arrive. I contacted a fellow on the Machinegunboards Forum for EZ Pull recoil springs and a buffer but he?s out and needs to make some more. Extra mags are ordered. My nfa sbr paperwork applications have arrived and I?ll start filling them out next week [fingerprint cards and passport pix]. I?ve got to go to the county sheriffs dept this week to get my renewed ccw permit anyway. Hopefully with the guns age it?s broken in by now. If everything comes together before the years out I?ll cut it down to 10.5 in. My standard .45 load for all my 1911s, revolvers and AR45s is 4.5 gr of red dot with a 200gr rnfp lead or pc bullet. Pictures when it arrives. And I?ve got a pinstriped suit and fedora. What else do I need? [Besides a close match to attend.]

[Border Ruffian]

Congratulations on a great purchase. I have a 1995 vintage West Hurley and here's what I suggest.

1. Replace the "cheese grater" cocking handle with a rounded one from Kahr Arms. (this will save a lot of pain).

2. replace the M1A1 style butt stock and flat grip stock and vertical foregrip with a set from Dan Block (Deerslayer on Machinegunboards.com . These are much more attractive than the factory wood. he can even do a detachable buttstock conversion if you wish. 

3. Replace the M1A1 style safety with a paddle style safety from Kahr Arms.

4. Replace the rear sight with a Lyman Thompson SMG rear sight.

5. After you have your tax stamp buy a barrel from www.thompson barrels.com in black oxide finish (it will match your receiver). You will be happy with the results. If you simply cut down the 16 inch barrel, the contours of the cut down barrel won't look right. Even with extensive lathe work it may not look right. Your Thompson has a factory black oxide finish and is tough to match with blueing.  BTW your Cutts compensator is most probably threaded on and a gunsmith may have to remove it and thread the new barrel. Newer Thompson's compensators are pressed on.   

6. If your load does not work (seems light to me) I would try a 230 gr lead RN bullet, I like Missouri Bullet Company as they have some good ogive profiles on their 230 gr bullets. I would use a powder and charge which cycles the action my load is 5.3 gr of HP38/WW 231 over a 230 gr bullet.   

My Thompson is in the picture below.   

[Baltimore Ed]

Thanks for the input BR, just got a shipping update, going to be Friday instead of tomorrow. My .45 loads work my blowback AR 45s just fine but I?ll know fer sure on Saturday. Got four 30 rd magazines from What a Country, one is very nice, two average but one is rough outside but nice inside. It was supposed to be 2x20 and 2x30 but they screwed up my order. They all had some cosmoline on them. Called them today and rather than go through the aggravation of mailing 2 back to them [and they reimburse me shipping] they are going to send me a nice 20 rd. We?ll see.

Update?Now it?s Monday before it arrives. My altered mags have arrived and springs and buffer material from McMaster Carr ordered.

[Baltimore Ed]

It finally arrived. Looks just like the photos with some thinning blue, freckles, dings and scratches. Out of the eleven mags that I?ve picked up 5 engaged the mag lock ok 6 did not. One came with the gun which worked, 4 other altered mags out of 5 worked ok but 2 of them had feeding issues. I?ve only tried 5 rds out of each mag. I need to compare my 3 ?good? ones against my others. Hit every piece of steel that I aimed at. Filled out my sbr paperwork, got passport photos today and will go to the sheriffs office Wednesday for my fingerprint cards. Hopefully get it all in the mail shortly. Also got my mcmaster springs and buffer material today.

[Baltimore Ed]

Finally got my Mcmaster Carr reduced power springs and buffer material. I took the gun apart the other day and installed the springs and buffer that I had cut out. Cleaned and oiled it. Made a huge difference in working the bolt. But the mags that I thought were working had some hiccups. Before I shoot any more of my 200 gr pc swc?s I?m going to load up a bunch of the 230 gr lead bullets that I got from midway and see if that makes a difference. I also want to polish the feed ramp with some 600 grit. Last week I mailed my nfa sbr paperwork to the atf and my local cleo. See how long that bs takes. Bought a customized long horizontal forarm and English military buttstock from a guy on machinegun forums. I swapped the smooth AO buttplate for his nice serrated plate but I need to drill and tap a hole in my forend iron to mount my forarm. When I sbr it I?ll install the military buttstock, swap the plates back, add a sling and trim the forend. An interesting firearm for sure.

Cranked out some 230 gr rn lead loads and tried 10 in the mag that had acted up last time I used it. No problems with the rn loads but I can see machining marks on the feed ramp so a ramp polishing is needed.

[Border Ruffian]

Very interesting looking Thompson, it almost is a Thompson 1923 experimental, with the bipod and the very cool horizontal stock. Does it have a parkerized finish?? I really like the bipod attachment and there seems to be a retaining ring which holds the barrel inside the horizontal stock.

[DeaconKC]

Looking really nice! I may have to pry my wallet open and order one of those spring kits, everyone seems to like them.

[Baltimore Ed]

The fellow that I got the buttstock and forearm from said that his dad built the forearm to work and look better with a longer non sbr bbl that his dad?s tommy had. I?m guessing that he came up with the bipod mod to mitigate the guns considerable weight. Here?s the info on the mcmaster carr springs and buffer material. Machinegunboards has a sub forum on auto ordnance and kahr semi thompsons with the reduced spring info.

[MOSQUITO JACK]

I read you were talking about feed problems. The mags. often will be the culprit. The feed lips get pushed down just a little, and the cartridges catch on the front of the well. You want the round to slide forward with it just missing the front of the mag.

[Baltimore Ed]

Thanks Jack, I?ll ck them. In thinking about the issues after the spring swap I wonder if the lighter springs had trouble getting my 200 gr pc swc bullets up the roughish feed ramp where the stronger oem springs didn?t. Hopefully I?ll get the ramp polished up this weekend and try it again.